The present disclosure relates to a medical stereoscopic observation apparatus, a medical stereoscopic observation method, and a program.
In recent years, with the development of surgical techniques and surgical instruments, an operation of performing various kinds of treatments while observing an affected area through a medical observation apparatus such as an operation microscope or an endoscope (so-called microsurgery) has been frequently performed. The medical observation apparatus is not limited to an apparatus capable of optically observing an affected area, and there is an apparatus that causes an image of an affected area imaged by an imaging section (camera) to be displayed on a display unit such as a monitor as an electronic image as well.
When the image of the affected area imaged by the imaging section of the observation apparatus is displayed on the display unit, the image is mostly displayed as a planar two-dimensional (2D) image. However, since a 2D image lacks a sense of perspective, and thus it is difficult to understand a relative distance between an affected area and a treatment tool, in recent years, a technique of causing an image of an imaged affected area to be displayed as a three-dimensional (3D) image has also been developed. As described above, in an observation apparatus (which is hereinafter also referred to as a “stereoscopic observation apparatus”) that causes an image of an imaged affected area to be displayed as a 3D image, for example, different viewpoint images are observed by the left and right eyes, and thus the user observes an image of an affected area as a stereoscopic 3D image.